Leaders for Shelby County Schools have asked state lawmakers to put more controls over the Achievement School District as the two districts seek to co-exist in Memphis for a fifth year.

Shelby County Schools continues to reel from the steady growth of the state-run district, which has taken control of 24 Memphis schools since 2012 and continues to siphon off students and funding.

Superintendent Dorsey Hopson and Chief of Innovation Brad Leon laid out their requests for policy changes to state lawmakers this week in Nashville. They said the changes would help improve the relationship between the two districts, both of which are seeking to turn the trajectory on low-performing schools, but using different turnaround models.

“We’re not here to bash the ASD,” Hopson told lawmakers as ASD Superintendent Malika Anderson sat quietly nearby. “There are just some challenges with the process that have an impact on us.”

Since the legislature created the state-run district in 2010 to shake up chronically low-performing schools, the education landscape has shifted significantly in Memphis, where most of those schools existed. By 2017, 10 percent of public school students zoned for Shelby County Schools will attend ASD schools, up from 5.6 percent in 2015.

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While local districts in Tennessee answer to school boards, the ASD has no public board and answers to the state legislature. Rep. Mark White, a Republican from Memphis and chairman of an education subcommittee, said lawmakers are interested in learning more before the next legislative session starts in January.

ASD officials said that they look forward to those discussions.

“We are constrained by law in some areas like our mandate to look at annual growth of eligible schools on a yearly basis,” said Margo Roen, chief of new schools and accountability. “However, we will remain committed to these discussions and the type of collaboration that produces results that are in the best interest of children.”

Here’s what leaders of Shelby County Schools are asking for:

Give Shelby County Schools more time to plan for potential school takeovers.

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PHOTO: SCS

Brad Leon, Shelby County Schools

Local leaders say the ASD should be required to announce schools under consideration for takeover within six months of running the priority list, which comes out every three years and identifies schools in Tennessee’s bottom 5 percent that are eligible for ASD takeover. Currently, the ASD selects schools to take over annually. The next list is due out in 2017. Leon said a more contained notice period would help Shelby County Schools avoid disruption to academic programming, as well as help the local district to know how many schools and students to budget for.

The ASD should take over the lowest-performing schools first. Start at the bottom and work up the list, suggests Leon. Currently, the ASD can pick any school that makes the priority list, no matter what the order. Shifting to a bottom-up approach likely would take some of the heat off Memphis, home to all but two of the ASD’s 33 schools. It also likely would point the ASD toward districts in Nashville, Chattanooga or Knoxville. “There’s certainly a disproportionate number of schools on the priority list in Shelby County, but we see the ASD not focus on any other part of the state that has low-performing schools,” Leon said. ASD officials already have indicated plans to explore expansion elsewhere in 2018, including Chattanooga.

Prohibit phase-ins when converting a local school to a charter school. When the ASD came to Memphis, it authorized charter operators that typically wanted to phase in their operations one or several grades at a time. That meant that the local district and its employees and students had to share a building with the ASD as the charter operator gradually took control of more grades. Leon said this approach kept the ASD from serving all students who attended the school when it made the priority list. “(This is) the opposite of urgency,” Leon said.

Don’t rely only on charter operators for turnaround work. The ASD runs five Memphis schools itself, but for the last three years has only authorized charter operators to do its newest turnaround work. Leon said the ASD should go back to a mixture of ASD-run and charter-run schools because of the limited number of high-quality charter operators. “There are going to be times you’ve got a low-performing charter and you may not have the operator waiting in the wings, and you don’t take the accountability moves you should be making,” Leon said.

End the creation of new ASD schools until the state-run district can show consistent academic gains at existing schools. Seven of the ASD’s 33 schools are not takeovers but were started from scratch. Leon charged that new starts go against the ASD’s mission to help pre-existing struggling schools. He said the ASD shouldn’t be allowed to start new schools until the rest of the schools in the state-run district posts academic gains. For the last two years, the ASD had a TVAAS score of 1, meaning their students grew less than expected or declined in performance. (Schools that had been in the ASD for longer saw more growth.) “When you have two consecutive years of Level 1 TVAAS and you continue to expand, I would suggest that you need to fix your own shop before you start to take on additional schools,” Leon said.

Fund Shelby County Schools students at the same level as ASD students. Shelby County Schools received $500 less per student of state and local funds last year than ASD students. Despite a boost in state education spending, Shelby County Schools is still struggling with annual budget cuts, and it’s not clear if its own school turnaround effort, the Innovation Zone, is sustainable due to the expensive interventions required. Leon asked for state funds to be distributed among the districts more equitably.

Roen said the ASD has its own wish list for Shelby County Schools, including increasing the availability of information on students who transition from Shelby County to ASD schools.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated with a response from ASD officials.

Shelby County Schools has reclaimed a Memphis school building that formerly housed a state-run charter school that just moved across town.

This week, the former campus of Raleigh-Egypt Middle School began housing middle schoolers under the local district in Memphis.

District leaders posted a video Wednesday on Facebook showing students returning to the building that last year housed a charter school managed by Memphis Scholars.

“They did not stay in the building, so now Shelby County Schools has that building again, and middle schoolers have their own space,” said Shari Jones Meeks, principal of Raleigh-Egypt High School, which added middle school grades last year.

“We’ve been here every day this week trying to get our classrooms ready,” added Anna Godwin, a middle school science teacher. “It’s awesome, a lot of space. The kids are going to feel right at home.”

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The change brings the school full circle after a year-long tug-of-war over students and facilities with the state-run Achievement School District, which took control of Raleigh-Egypt Middle last summer because of chronic low performance.

After the takeover, the local district expanded grades next door at Raleigh-Egypt High School in an effort to retain students. It worked. This spring, the charter organization got the state’s permission to move its under-enrolled school 16 miles away, where Memphis Scholars already operates an elementary school under Tennessee’s turnaround district.

Even though middle schoolers are returning to their old building, Raleigh-Egypt High School will remain one school with grades 6-12 and one administration, according to Michelle Stuart, facility planning manager for the district.

Klondike Elementary was closed by the ASD when its operator, Gestalt Community Schools, decided to exit its two North Memphis schools because of low enrollment. The ASD approved Frayser Community Schools to step in as the new operator at Humes Middle, but couldn’t secure one for Klondike.

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While Shelby County Schools has no plan to resurrect Klondike at this time, it will continue to lease space to Perea Preschool, a private Christian school that will serve more than 160 children in a building designed for more than 600. Perea also has applied to open an elementary charter school at Klondike under Shelby County Schools, though that application was initially denied.

On the opposite side of Memphis, the building formerly occupied as a middle school by charter operator KIPP will be listed for sale, according to Stuart.

The former Memphis City school building was leased to KIPP beginning in 2014 by Shelby County Schools. Last December, KIPP leaders decided to close it too, citing low enrollment and the school’s remote location.

Tennessee is bringing in some new blood to lead its turnaround district after cutting its workforce almost in half and repositioning the model as an intervention of last resort for the state’s chronically struggling schools.

While Malika Anderson remains as superintendent of the Achievement School District, she’ll have two lieutenants who are new to the ASD’s mostly charter-based turnaround district, as well as two others who have been part of the work in the years since its 2011 launch.

The hires stand in contrast to the original ASD leadership team, which was heavy with education reformers who came from outside of Tennessee or Memphis. And that’s intentional, Anderson said Friday as she announced the new lineup with Education Commissioner Candice McQueen.

“It is critical in this phase of the ASD that we are learning from the past … and have leaders who are deeply experienced in Tennessee,” Anderson said.

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Verna Ruffin Chief academic officer

PHOTO: Submitted

Verna Ruffin

Duties: She’ll assume oversight of the district’s five direct-run schools in Memphis called Achievement Schools, a role previously filled by former executive director Tim Ware, who did not reapply. She’ll also promote collaboration across Achievement Schools and the ASD’s charter schools.

Last job: Superintendent of Jackson-Madison County School District since 2013

Her story: More than 30 years of experience in education as a teacher, principal, director of secondary curriculum, assistant superintendent and superintendent in Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma and Tennessee. At Jackson-Madison County, Ruffin oversaw a diverse student body and implemented a K-3 literacy initiative to promote more rigorous standards.

Farae Wolfe Executive director of operations

Duties: Human resources, technology and operations

Current job: Program director for the Community Youth Career Development Center in Cleveland, Miss.

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Her story: Wolfe has been city manager and human resources director for Cleveland, Miss., where she led a health and wellness initiative that decreased employee absenteeism due to minor illness by 20 percent. Her work experience in education includes overseeing parent and community relations for a Mississippi school district, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Leaders continuing to work with the state turnaround team are:

Lisa Settle Chief performance officer

PHOTO: Achievement Schools

Lisa Settle

Duties: She’ll oversee federal and state compliance for charter operators and direct-run schools.

Last job: Chief of schools for the direct-run Achievement Schools since June 2015

Her story: Settle was co-founder and principal of Cornerstone Prep-Lester Campus, the first charter school approved by the ASD in Memphis. She also has experience in writing and reviewing curriculum in her work with the state’s recent Standards Review Committee.

Bobby White Executive director of external affairs

PHOTO: ASD

Bobby White

Duties: He’ll continue his work to bolster the ASD’s community relations, which was fractured by the state’s takeover of neighborhood schools in Memphis when he came aboard in April 2016.

Last job: ASD chief of external affairs

His story: A Memphis native, White previously served as chief of staff and senior adviser for Memphis and Shelby County Mayor A.C. Wharton, as well as a district director for former U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Jr.

A new team for a new era

The restructuring of the ASD and its leadership team comes after state officials decided to merge the ASD with support staff for its Achievement Schools. All 59 employees were invited in May to reapply for 30 jobs, some of which are still being filled.

The downsizing was necessary as the state ran out of money from the federal Race to the Top grant that jump-started the turnaround district in 2011 and has sustained most of its work while growing to 33 schools at its peak.

“Overall, this new structure will allow the ASD to move forward more efficiently,” McQueen said Friday, “and better positions the ASD to support the school improvement work we have outlined in our ESSA plan …”

In the next phase, school takeovers will not be as abrupt as the first ones that happened in Memphis in 2012, prompting angry protests from teachers and parents and outcry from local officials. Local districts will have three years to use their own turnaround methods before schools can be considered for takeover.

It’s uncertain where the ASD will expand next, but state officials have told Hamilton County leaders that it’s one of several options on the table for five low-performing schools in Chattanooga.